Cemeteries

Note: any church within an urban environment may have had its
graveyard closed after the Burial Act of 1853. Any new church built
after that is unlikely to have had a graveyard at all.

Church History

This Place of Worship was founded before 1300, and we understand it is still open.

Kelly's Directory of 1895 describes St Lawrence's Church as "a building of stone, consisting of clerestoried nave of five bays, aisles, south porch and an embattled western tower with pinnacles, containing a clock and 4 bells, the first three dated respectively 1606, 1618, and 1714, and the fourth bearing an invocation in Lombardic capitals". The church was evidently rebuilt throughout during the Decorated period, c.1300, and has a remarkable porch with semi-circular stone ribs, and in the north aisle a small circular window of exceptional character.

The nave was new-roofed, the arcade wall raised and a clerestory formed during the Perpendicular period. The church was renovated c.1843, when all that was left of the ancient glass was worked up into new and glaring designs. The font is an octagon, panelled and carved with quatrefoils. The brass eagle lectern was given by the parishioners in 1894, as a memorial to the Rev. John Hewetson M.A. vicar 1852-93. There are 606 sittings, 300 being free. The register dates from the year 1681 for all entries and is in good condition. The living had then been held by the Rev. Joseph Hewetson M.A. of Worcester College, Oxford since 1893.

The Ashby-de-la-Zouch canal passes through the village and the parish is bounded on the east and south by the river Mease. Originally it included parts of the townships of Donisthorpe and Oakthorpe, though there is no mention of this by Kelly. It was transferred to Leicestershire in 1897, and is now in the diocese of Leicester. Derbyshire Record Office's catalogue of Church of England Registers includes microfiche of baptisms 1751-1812, marriages 1754-1812, and burials 1751-1812. The dedication is sometimes spelled "St Laurence".

Denomination

Now or formerly Church of England.

If more than one congregation has worshipped here,
or its congregation has united with others, in most cases this
will record its original dedication.

Maps

This Church is located at OS grid reference SK3352812214. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

www.magic.gov.uk (Modern Maps with various overlays)
Zoom out to 1:100000 to see County boundaries, and 1:500000 to show Parish Boundaries.

Reference

Places recorded by the Registrar
General under the provisions of the Places of Worship
Registration Act 1855 (2010) is available as a
"Freedom of Information" document from the website
What Do They Know.

You can specify either a Place, or OS Grid Reference to
search for. When you specify a Place, only entries for that place
will be returned, with Places of Worship listed in alphabetical
order. If you specify a Grid Reference, Places of Worship in the
immediate vicinity will be listed, in order of distance from the Grid
Reference supplied. The default is to list 10, but you can specify
How Many you want to see, up to a maximum of 100.

You can further refine your search by supplying other search terms.

You can specify entries with ('Yes') or without ('No') photographs.

You can specify a church or chapel's Dedication, to restrict entries to
those containing the term you supply as a dedication. So for instance, 'John'
would return 'St John', 'St Mary and St John', 'St John the Divine' &c.

You can specify a Street address, and likewise 'George' will return
George Place, St George's Street, George and Dragon, &c.

You can restrict the search to classes of Denomination. The exact denomination
is always shown in the results, although the search is for broad types. So you
can search for 'Methodist', but not 'Wesleyan Methodist' or 'Primitive Methodist'.
'Multi-denominational' includes Ecumenical Partnerships, and
'Other' means anything not covered by other broad classes.

Please note the above provides a search of selected fields in
the Derbyshire section of the Places of Worship
Database on this site (churchdb.gukutils.org.uk) only.
For other counties, or for a full search of the Database, you might
like to try the site's
Google Custom Search, which includes full webpage content.

Further Information

This site provides historical information about churches, other places
of worship and cemeteries. It has no affiliation with the churches or
congregations themselves, nor is it intended to provide a means to find
places of worship in the present day.

For current information you should contact the place of worship directly.